This story was reported and written by VPM News.
When federal immigration arrests in Virginia surged this year, community members said the negative impact was immediate. Fear saturated neighborhoods and workplaces where parents, caregivers and wage-earners suddenly disappeared.
Throughout the commonwealth, a wave of mutual aid has come from community foundations, grassroots organizations and neighbors who quietly built their own support systems for families caught in detention and deportation proceedings.
According to an analysis by VPM News of ICE enforcement data obtained through the Deportation Data Project's FOIA-released dataset, US Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents made 6,694 arrests in Virginia from Jan. 1 through Oct. 15 — a dramatic increase of nearly seven times 2024's arrests for that time frame.
Over 3,700 people have been booked at Riverside Regional Jail in Prince George County, which serves as a holding facility for ICE, since January.
"We started fundraising after realizing the great need that there was in the families that were being affected by the separations," said one tenant rights organizer in Richmond. "Because they were struggling a lot, for legal fees, but mostly to pay their rent."
The woman, who requested anonymity due to her pending legal status, told VPM News that 2025 has been one of the hardest as a front-line community organizer.
When her phone rings during the early morning hours, she already knows what kind of call it is. Someone's husband was arrested on the way to work. A mom is worried about school drop-off while ICE is present in her neighborhood.
"When the separation of the families is done, it generates a strong crisis in the home, especially because the men, who have been the strongest target at this time, are the ones who generally support the economy of the house or the family."
She told VPM News several mutual aid fundraisers have been held to support Virginia families in crisis. And the aid doesn't stop there: She's still in touch with a woman whose husband was detained during the early raids in February.
"This family contacts me, his wife, to tell me that he is in need of a $7,000 bond," she said. "And a fundraiser was held to be able to pay his bail. But he is still in detention."
The organizer told VPM News it's great seeing people come together to support families, but it's frustrating when authorities don't follow the once-standard procedures — like freeing someone whose bond is paid.
"I think that there is a lot of pain and frustration and you lose credibility and hope that there is a system that actually works and gets the job done," she said. "It is a system that is broken."
We do not want to improve the conditions of the centers. We want to close these centers.
Beatriz Batres knows what it is like to navigate America's cumbersome immigration system, having been detained in 2014 with her young child. But Batres also recalls an uplifting letter that she received from a stranger while in detention.
"Being in a space where you don't know what is going to happen tomorrow, it is encouraging to be able to receive words of encouragement from another person you don't know, have never seen, but they know you are there and that gives you hope," she said in Spanish.
Now, she is an organizer for migrant justice with La ColectiVA and Free Them All VA.
The weekend before Thanksgiving, Batres organized a group in Arlington to write letters for people detained at the Farmville and Caroline County detention centers. Batres said writing or receiving a letter can be a vessel for community healing.
"I wanted to create a space where people can write their stories, because in writing them — detailing situations of violence that they've lived in similar experiences — that's part of the process of healing," Batres said.
What separates La ColectiVA from other organizations, Batres said, is that it organizes with the community directly impacted. Free Them All VA is led by people who have previously been detained. As part of these organizations, Batres advocates for the complete shutdown of Virginia's two immigrant detention centers.
"It is important for us that people know that we do not want to improve the conditions of the centers. We want to close these centers. And people will ask, 'Why do you want to close them?'" Batres said. "Because that money that the federal government is giving to have these private prisons open, that money could be reinvested in our people. It could be reinvested in our community, for housing, for education and to improve the wages of our community."
Although immigration violations are civil offenses, people held in these facilities often experience the same conditions as someone detained for a criminal offense. They must pay for phone calls and basic commissary items — compounding the financial burden on their families.
LaColectiVA formed a collective liberation fund to support people detained in Virginia's detention centers with a $75 monthly stipend — $25 for phone calls and $50 for commissary items.
"We know that there are many of our people who do not have families out here. And on the other hand, we know that when a person is detained and his family is separated, not always the family outside has the capacity to send money. And we are doing this as a way to support these families," Batres said.
According to Batres, the organization has raised $8,000 this year to support commissary purchase inside Virginia's two detention centers.
They hardly had anything. They hardly had anything to drink. And there were a lot of people and a small space.
Miles away from home, newly released individuals must navigate the added challenge of transportation, a hurdle that can turn freedom into a logistical struggle.
One Richmond resident said he was in the middle of work when he was asked "out of the blue" to coordinate a ride for someone being released from Farmville.
The request came from a network of his trusted Latino contacts: "Who's available, who can do this?"
This person requested anonymity due to fear for his safety.
He said he picked up an older man he had never met before from Richmond Main Street Station and drove him to Northern Virginia. The man was to be reunited with his family after being detained — first in Chantilly's ICE Field Office and later at Farmville.
"He told me that he had been in Chantilly, at a holding facility, for three days. And that facility was terrible. It was horrible. It was," The driver told VPM News. "They hardly had anything. They hardly had anything to drink. And there were a lot of people and a small space."
Reporting from The Washington Post on ICE's office in Chantilly — which is meant for short-term processing — said it's "severely overcrowded," with many people being held for days without basic amenities like beds, showers or food.
Another significant barrier for families facing the arrest-to-deportation pipeline: finding legal representation. An attorney can run thousands of dollars, and Virginia has no statewide public defender system for immigration cases.
Charlie Schmidt, president of the Richmond Community Legal Fund, said since the nonprofit formalized in April 2025, the organization has been met with an overwhelming need as immigration enforcement arrests escalate.
The fund is made up of community activists, lawyers and volunteers who aim to bridge the justice gap in Richmond.
Schmidt, who has since secured the Democratic nomination for the vacant House of Delegates District 77, said RCLF helps affected community members and families connect with trusted attorneys for legal advice. Early on, the fund's focus was family reunification by raising money to post bonds.
The fund also helps facilitate travel for family reunification; a secondary group of volunteers monitors court arraignment proceedings related to immigration enforcement.
Schmidt said having eyes on the ground has helped them gauge ICE activity since arrest data specific to the Richmond area has not been made available.
"I think it has been vital to give good information to people so they can make educated decisions," he said. "So they can make informed decisions about what is best for their situation in their family, and then we support them."
According to Schmidt, RCLF has helped close to 50 families in the Richmond area and has raised about $120,000 for legal defense since April.
Schmidt said the "heavy-handed" immigration enforcement on the part of Trump's Administration is having damaging ripple effects out to community members — which is where legal and mutual aid comes into play.
"We're helping individuals pay their rent, pay their legal bills, keep the lights on, get food on the table while their loved one is fighting for their immigration case," Schmidt said.
To show solidarity with Richmond's immigrant community, the fund worked with local artists to create signs that declare "ICE is not welcome here." Schmidt said the signs were well-received by many residents, restaurants and businesses posting them on their front doors and lawns.
According to Schmidt, the signs send a powerful statement: "That we're going to film you. We're going to document. We're watching you."
But right now, as enforcement continues, community members said they expect the demand for mutual aid to keep climbing.
Editor's note: Questions about this story should be directed to News Director Elliott Robinson or Managing Editor Dawnthea M. Price Lisco.
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